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Day one with my newly acquired G5 Quad

Joshuarocks

Joshuarocks

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2011
364
1
Somewhere in Cyberspace
Hello everyone!

Well, just received my G5 Quad yesterday! I have a couple of issues with it, and thank God the cooling system is fully functional. The original owner told me that he replaced the power supply, as the serial number fell in line with some of the Quad models needing replacement power supplies.

Good news for me: The seller took care of this a while back. Now, here is something really weird. I am not getting the Yellow trickle light to come on when I remove the air deflector shield. I wonder if this has to do with the new power supply Apple put in this thing? I tried a SMU reset and PRAM reset to no avail. Apple Service Diagnostic and Apple Hardware Test report everything normal and running normal with regards to my logic board, and processors.

I even re-calibrated the processors just to ease my concern of coolant leaks; the calibration test passed with flying colors - the Processors are fine and working normally. My current temps for the CPUs are as follows:

CPU A Core 1 Diode: 120.4F
CPU A Core 2 Diode: 120.0F
CPU B Core 1 Diode: 125.9F
CPU B Core 2 Diode: 124.8F

I assume all this is normal..

Next issue has to do with noise. I think I have isolated the main noise coming from the Nvidia 7800 GT - I was told this is an extremely LOUD video card. I am pending an order for the 6600 256MB version which has just a black heatsink and no fan.

Other than those problems above, the machine is running just fine.. I am just concerned as to why the Yellow Trickle LED isn't lighting up or coming on when I remove the air deflector shield. The only time the RED Stop light came up was when I was trying to boot up Apple Service Diagnostic OS Version.. I forget the page, but in the service manual, it states that Quad G5 is NOT compatible with 2.6.3 Operating system version of the Apple Service Diagnostic, where as Open Firmware is.

Again, no other problems recorded.. Although, it came with 8GB of memory, I found two sticks to be bad and as a result my Quad now has 6GB as was stated on the invoice when I bought this from the seller.

I hope someone can help or shed some light on why the Yellow Light is not coming on. Not that it doesn't bother me, its just not normal behavior.

Thank you.

Josh.

Oh, I am pleased to mention to that my liquid cooling system is a Panasonic model and not Delphi(2 big black blocks in case no one remembered what it looked like).
 
I had 2 big black blocks in mine, and mine was a Delphi. :p
leave that ****** 6200 out and keep the 7800GT <--- GREAT card :)
I am not too sure about the light, so good luck with that, also your temps are nice and close together showing that the LCS is working great. :D

cheers and have fun, makes me wish i had hung onto my old Quad :);)
 
VanneDC said:
I had 2 big black blocks in mine, and mine was a Delphi. :p
leave that ****** 6200 out and keep the 7800GT <--- GREAT card :)
I am not too sure about the light, so good luck with that, also your temps are nice and close together showing that the LCS is working great. :D

cheers and have fun, makes me wish i had hung onto my old Quad :);)
Click to expand...

But the 7800GT is one loud card!! I am so used to my silent cards in my 2010 mac pro. What video card can you recommend for me that is super quiet for my G5? Oh, the LCS with the 2 black boxes I believe is the later and reliable LCS for the G5, in addition to the panasonic.

As for the yellow trickle light, I am still baffled as to why this won't come on.. My guess it had to do with the original owner replacing the faulty power supply unit with the new one from Apple.

As I said, other than the noisy 7800 GT, everything is working great! Even got my 24 inch LED Cinema display working w/ my G5 thanks to Kanex's MDP-DVI adapter.
 
Transporteur said:
Just replace the 7800's stock cooler with a Arctic Cooling Accelero or something like that.
Click to expand...

Ok, can you provide the link? I have never replaced a stock cooler on a video card before.. is it easy?? Also, is it expensive to get this? Can you provide the link?

Thanks.

Also, do you know why my yellow trickle light isn't coming on?
 
Joshuarocks said:
Ok, can you provide the link? I have never replaced a stock cooler on a video card before.. is it easy?? Also, is it expensive to get this? Can you provide the link?

Thanks.

Also, do you know why my yellow trickle light isn't coming on?
Click to expand...

i've got a G5 2.0 with a 6600 LE graphics card. I've been looking for a better card if you want to sell your 7800GT or trade plus some cash on my part. don't want to stray too far off topic so i'll dm you
 
The 7800 was too noisy for me, too, on the one quad I had with it.

Get the Quadro fx4500 for the G5.

There are internal wires that lead down to the where the plastic deflector sits. You can try to trace them to see why the little metal tab on the bottom of the deflector is being overridden. Or not.
 
Ok, I am willing to take the 7800 GT apart and see where the noise is coming from. But, can someone still explain to me why the Yellow LED trickle light isn't illuminating when I remove the air deflector shield?

Thats really the only thing thats bugging me right now + the video card's loudness.
 
California said:
The 7800 was too noisy for me, too, on the one quad I had with it.

Get the Quadro fx4500 for the G5.

There are internal wires that lead down to the where the plastic deflector sits. You can try to trace them to see why the little metal tab on the bottom of the deflector is being overridden. Or not.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. Is the Quadrofx4500 a noisy card? What is the most powerful, worthwhile card to get if I want to get rid of the 7800 GT?
 
Joshuarocks said:
Hmm.. Is the Quadrofx4500 a noisy card? What is the most powerful, worthwhile card to get if I want to get rid of the 7800 GT?
Click to expand...

The Quadro is the best card available for the Dual Core/Quad G5s. I had one with mine. Quiet, fast 512 vram. Or you could mess around with your 7800, but I could not even work with that card and sold the whole machine. I've owned like five Quads.

Also i think you asked about the bluetooth board and airport on your machine

Like the internal wires to your air deflector connection, Apple figured out to make the bluetooth/airport wires internal on the last revision of the G5s, your machine. Reception is very good. I might be able to still get a bluetooth board for it if you need one.
 
Cox Orange said:
I'd say a flashed 7800GTX with 512MB is the fastest...

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/71BBF3EF-9713-4C53-8B80-26771F8A4087.html
Click to expand...

And it's true, especially in gaming. But some people still don't want to believe it even if it's proven many times by trustworthy testers...

http://www.barefeats.com/mutant4.html

In pro apps such as FC, Maya, C4D Quadro is unbeatable (of cards available for G5).

Transporteur said:
Hello (again) 300D.
Click to expand...

You've beaten me :D
 
Ok, in closing this thread.. I have decided to go with the Quadro fx 4500 and also as a back up, I also am getting the 6600 256MB version - I really want my machine quiet and not noisy though.

But I guess a little bit of noise isn't too bad though.
 
Google it. Every real-world benchmark shows the correct results; X1900 is an average of 20% faster than a 7800.
 
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